I did this once on a 30 scarab.It seemed to take forever for something to happen when adjusting the trim.I bought 1/4 in aluminum and cut them to be about 20".I mounted the straight to the bottom of the bennet tabs by drilling holes threw both.I used stainless countersunk bolts and stainless nuts and washers so there would be no drag.I also tappered the leading edge so water flow would be disrupted as little as possible.The seemed to work well and the action was alot quicker when trimming than before.They held up real well also and sold the boat with them on. The cost was about 30 bucks at the time with very minor time involved.When buying the aluminum,most metal shops can cut it to order.

trim tabs are as important to the way your boat will handle as the trim on your out drive or the x-demention, you need to take a ride in a boat that can run at a high rate of speed thru rough water and then you understand how important they are. I have a 28' with single engine and I use the tabs to help get the boat up on plane faster and save wear and tear on the outdrive. Most people on this website I would hope take more pride in there boat than to just simple bolt on a longer piece of material to the existing tab and call it good but I could be wrong.

That's what i was talking about. If nothing else just to see if it helps.

I really wish something could be done with the martini boat place that had a kick ass design replacement for bennett tabs.. it never seems to amaze me that, when you really want something its a day late and a doller short.. i too would like some different tabs for my sunsation and just cant seem to get some.. If i had a metal shop and the skills i would be doing exactly what martini did and i would make a killing, there are so many boats out there that are in need, just need someone to take the ball and run with it..

martins custom, it sounds like you may have some ideas and could possibly make something happen, if this is possible, could you please show us some ideas?

Its still a very simpistic design that can be easily fabricated by majority of fab shops, extending the current tab would not hinder performance if done properly, nor would it hurt the performance if a competely new tab was made from scratch.



this design is nothing more then a tapered piece of stainless steel with a mounting bracket/gusset mounting in the middle. this would be very easy to replicate

Also sometimes its Function over fashion.

I think Martins Custom interpreted your post as I did. It sounded as if you would make up some tabs in your shed, for damn near nothing. People that do this stuff for a living value their time and hopefully would do a professional job. Even if the material is not that much the time it takes to make and the years spend mastering the skill to do the job right is what warrants the price. If you can offer a professional job for someone and do it free more power to you. No one is trying to offend you.

like i said we need someone to take over the martini trim tab design, i think alot of people would scoop them up...really sucks things didnt work out for martini, he had it going on...

Obnoxus - Do you want to sell the tabs that you have? I'm interested.

if thats the way he took it then thats perfectly fine, although if you ever see the "tools" in my garage youd be suprised, And i did refer him to go to a local fab shop which i hope would be professional in the workings, as far as when i mention if he was closer that i would do it for him, i work for a Perforancing tuning shop doing all the fabrication we have all the goodies at the shop, Mill, Mig, Tig, Coldsaw etc. so i would be perfectly capable of building a set of trim tabs and actually plan to copy a set of the victory trim tabs when i get more time, unfortunatly im busy building Dyno trailers, ive been fabricating for about 8 years now, so for me to say the design is "simple" definatly comes a total diffrent perspective then most people.

here is a little bit of the work that ive done, with out making the post to long.

this is the dynotrailers that i build with Dynojet224 rollers:


Start of a equal length header i was building for my truck:


Turbo manifold for a 2.2 ecotec motor:


And this is a tattoo machine that i made from scratch, tattooing is a hobby i took up but cant seem to find time to do it as of late:



im sure ill post pics once i get around to making the trim tabs.

If you increase the size of the factory trim tab, whatever that may be.. How can you determine that the pressure points on the transom plates can take it since they may or may not be stressed for that?

Seems like most people just bolt on new one's, increase the size of stock tabs without this consideration. That added surface area has to transfer the load somewhere, right?

I have pretty small tabs on mine, just thinking of adding a doubler to slightly increase the size. Don't really have the extra scratch to drop $3K in tabs or K planes right now.

Here is a pic of my 257 Mirage, with small tabs.

Thanks-